Latest Blow to Bad Boy: Dior fired John Galliano

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Latest Blow to Bad Boy: Dior fired John Galliano

That's the end, my friend. British fashion designer John Galliano is in big, big trouble. Dior isnt supporting him anymore because there is too much at stake: "Today, because of the particularly odious nature of the behaviour and words of John Galliano in a video made public this Monday, the Christian Dior house has decided to lay him off immediately and has begun dismissal procedures against him," it said in an official company statement.

Yesterday, Mr. Galliano arrived at a police station in the 3rd arrondissement of Paris, the traditionally Jewish and today gay neighbourhood. He looked puffy, hiding his face under a wide-brimmed hat tacked with a sprig of pink and white flowers. No wonder: on Thursday, he had 1,1 milligrams of alcohol in each litre of his blood. Unusual? Well, on this day at least he had had champagne at lunch, champagne for tea, and champagne for dinner. Not to forget his Mojito after dinner.

From "La Perle" to "The police"

John Galliano, 50, was suspended from Dior after having been arrested for assault and making anti-Semitic remarks. Hopefully, he was a bit more sober during the face to face meeting with witnesses yesterday. Over five hours, Mr. Galliano was questioned and confronted by the couple he is accused of assaulting verbally in “La Perle” last Thursday.

But this is not all. Mr. Galliano had to face fresh allegations yesterday, as a video surfaced on the web where he appears to deliver a similar anti-Semitic tirade in the same Paris bar, “La Perle”, against other patrons. In the video Mr. Galliano seems to declare in a slurred voice that “people like you would be dead”.

He apparently added: “your mothers, your forefathers would all be fucking gassed”. And then: “I love Hitler”. The clip was produced December 12, last year, and was found on Citizenside, a file sharing site that sold it to the British tabloid “The Sun”.

Behind the curtains

Mr. Galliano denies all.

And besides the question of what really happened on these nights when he hung out at “La Perle”, just a few steps from his apartment in the Marais district, the incident shows something else: John Galliano is paying for his creativity with his personality.

His last Haute Couture show, a homage to Christian Dior, was breathtakingly beautiful.

It seemed that his career had just peaked. And now, looking behind the curtains, the ugly side appears.

The fashion scene, as we all know, is a very strange biotope, gathering individuals with extreme egos, often nourished by drugs or alcohol or sometimes not nourished at all. That’s the other side of the coin.

Dior? J'adooooore!

After all, everybody loved the bad boy of fashion – as long as his provocation only concerned the dress code. But now he has lost control, he let the mask slip. Under these circumstances, Dior can not present the show scheduled on Friday at the Musée Rodin. It’s time now to limit the losses. In the company world, the name for this is "reputation risk". Galliano's personal reputation is no longer at risk - it has fallen to pieces.Photos: Miguel Medina, AFP Miguel Medina, AFP You've said arrogant? Not at all. Just anti-Semitic, they say. John Galliano after the last show in January - Photo: François Guillot, AFP Strictly haughty, never naughty: last Dior Haute Couture show in Jannuary 2011 - Photo: François Guillot, AFP